The goal was to develop a European Computerized Human Brain Database (ECHBD) during a 36 months. It would contain and offer the possibility to manipulate quantitative neuroscience data of the normal human brain in a standard format. More specifically, the database was to contain four dimensional images of quantitatively measured microstructural variables such as neurotransmitter receptor densities, number of neurons etc. as well as quantitatively measured physiological and biochemical variables with positron,emission tomoaraphic techniques, functional MRI, MEG and EEG techniques. When sufficient amount of data has been added to the ECHBD, with its functionalities, is a model of structural-functional relationships of the cerebral cortex in man.
Already important conclusions can be drawn from comparing, microstructural and functional data with the help of the ECHBD. First there is a surprising variability in cortical areas. normal individuals, For example, area 44, an area which does not exist in monkeys but only in human beings, and which is crucial for the production of lanauaae may in one individual contain four times as many nerve cells as in another equally normal individual. Similarly, when we activate our brain by doing some tasks, the functional fields becoming. active vary considerably from individual to individual. The project has led to the definition and discovery of. new cortical areas. On the technological side, the partners have developed an informatics tool built on a new philosophy of visual search within the rigidly defined conceptual space: the first ever 3D image data with additional dimensions of intensity, variance in intensity, across small populations.
The ECHBD contains visual navigation tools and the tools to interrogate the structural-functional relationships (combination of Boolean operations, intersection analysis etc.). In addition to what has been promised, the KI group has also provided facilities to look up methods and experimental conditions, tools for intersection volume analysis, limited access to data for certain client (for example, scientists who want to have their data confidential). The development of the client server architecture and the batch submission are also in access of what has been promised.